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2018 Reflection

12/30/18

Hi!! I hope you all had a lovely holiday and enjoyed this relaxing week between the craziness of Christmas and New Years. I unexpectedly took a few weeks off of blogging during finals and the holiday, but I’m excited to pop back on today and reflect on 2018. Tomorrow I’ll be back again with my highlights from the year!

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to sit down and write this annual end-of-year reflection, but my thoughts have been all over the place. In the last couple of weeks I’ve made quite the handful of mistakes that almost make me want define this year as an absolutely terrible one, but that just wouldn’t be true. Looking back on 2018, I messed up a lot, said and did things I shouldn’t have, and didn’t always appreciate how lucky I am to have the life that I do. However, this year I accomplished things that I never thought I could, and even exceeded a few personal goals. At the end of the day, I’d say this year taught me a lot about where I can improve and I want to reflect on it a little!

The year started off rough. Returning to school in January, I was kind of losing my mind and needed to distract myself. Sooo… I took a spontaneous trip to New York in February, spent my spring break in London, and then took a fun trip to Chicago with my family after finals. Throughout the semester things were really on an uphill climb. In March I wrote this post talking about how great it felt to finally love college so much!!

Then, this summer, I didn’t have the best experience at my internship and was simultaneously trying to figure out a long-term relationship I was in. Towards the end of the summer I felt drained, confused, and generally unhappy. I took a much-needed trip to Palm Beach for my golden birthday with my dad, which was truly the best. Following PB, I spent a relaxing week in New York with family and then spontaneously visited Lehigh, where I went to school freshman year. Surprisingly this little return to Lehigh reassured me that transferring was the best decision I could have made for myself.

Heading into this semester, I was kind of in recovery-mode from my wearying summer. I knew my academics were going to be a lot harder because I had just been admitted to the business school, so I was sort of freaking out about that. However, I was really looking forward to living with my three best friends, and I have to say that doing that completely changed my whole outlook. Immediately when I got back to school and settled into my apartment, my life was like instantly improved (dramatic, I know). My roommates make my life so enjoyable and I just adore them. As the semester went on, I felt like I was living my best life. For a few reasons, the semester just kept getting better and better and better.

However, this semester wasn’t amazing just because I had a lot of frivolous fun. Surprising as it may sound, I actually did accomplish a few tangible, important things ;) I spent the majority of the semester in a state of panic about my academics and ended up doing much better in school than I expected. I’ve always put significant pressure on myself to do well in school, and it completely paid off in the end.

I was also working on two personal goals at the end of summer that I knew were the reasons I was feeling so off. I definitely exceeded my own expectations for these goals, and that’s something I’m really proud of this year. These were both a long time coming, and I can't even begin to describe the satisfaction and happiness that comes from achieving momentous goals.

Overall, 2018 had it’s ups and downs, but in the end I’m proud of what I was able to accomplish. I’m feeling pretty hopeful that I’ll be a little bit less of a disaster next year ;) and I am excited to see what 2019 has in store.

I hope you all had an amazing year, and I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for following along! Every comment, like, and minute you take to read and follow along means so much to me. I love and appreciate each of you and I am so grateful to have this platform to create, inspire, and cultivate. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and Happy New Year!!!!

About Me

Hi, I'm Fran! I love candles, good music, and starting everyday with a cup (or two!) of strong coffee. Welcome to Fran Acciardo (creative, I know ;) where I share what I’m loving, what I’m wearing, where I’m traveling, and much more. I hope you enjoy!